Flexible circuitry products have been increasingly used in daughter card assemblies. Flexible circuitry products are typically machine made with 250 micrometer diameter bare fiber on the substrate and ribbonized input and output fibers extending beyond the substrate. In some cases, single fiber connectors are required. Therefore, the ribbonized optical fibers must be separated into the single optical fibers. Thus, a transition area is provided in which the ribbonized optical fibers are separated or broken out to provide single optical fibers that are then terminated. Use of single optical fibers requires tubing to protect and strengthen the single optical fibers. Although breakout devices have been used to protect the fibers in the transition area, these devices are generally bulky and complicated.
The breakout devices currently used are made from hard plastic and screws are used to mount the breakout device to the motherboard or daughter card of the system. As a result, a relatively large space is needed to mount the breakout devices.
Accordingly, a need exists for a simple breakout device that requires a relatively small amount of space.